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Product Reviews October 2006
Each month Teaching Pre K-8 reviews outstanding products for the classroom.
This month's products are:
Carson-Dellosa
Libraries Unlimited
Maupin House
Heinemann firsthand
Abrams Books for Young Readers
Around the World
Sleeping Bear Press
NSTA Press
The Critical Thinking Co.
Prufrock Press, Inc.
Pocket Charts
Pocket charts have been a mainstay of classrooms for as long as we can remember, but these new ones from Carson-Dellosa really take the cake. They are adjustable with three detachable, different-colored sections that can be hung singly or as a three-pocket unit. Each piece is 20" deep and 34" wide. The charts can be cleaned with dishwashing detergent and a damp sponge.
Now for the great part: The publisher has prepared graded resources in Math, and Reading for work with the charts. These are sold in individual sets (grades K through three) and arrive in handy binders. Each binder contains teachers' notes and reproducible worksheets as well as, in the case of Practical Pocket Chart Reading – A Resource for Third Grade, 214 high-frequency word cards. The pocket chart can be used in an endless variety of ways: Students can sort and differentiate between homophones and homographs, analyze the structure of long words and so on. This is one of the neatest packages we've seen in a long time.
We also received the Practical Pocket Chart Math – A Resource for Third Grade. We'd not thought of using a pocket chart in just this way, but it makes good sense.
Kids can count, read and write numbers up to 1000, use expanded notation to represent numbers to 10,000, master basic multiplication facts, identify simple fractions, identify fractional parts of sets, create, describe and extend number patterns and even work in basic Algebra. The usefulness of these charts is up to you; they're flexible, creative and a plus for classroom management.
Each of these sets contains 32 pages of suggested activities and 112 sheets of perforated pocket-chart cards. Plastic sleeves are included for storage of the cards once they're detached from the sheets in the binder. These charts work with any reading or math program you're using. $59.99 each plus s/h or from your school-supply dealer.
Carson-Dellosa
www.carsondellosaschooldivision.com
A Read-Aloud Guide
The third book in the series, Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3: A Read- Aloud Guide, has arrived and it's a honey. Judy Freeman has selected 2,000 titles published in the last 10 years, that are guaranteed to keep kids enthralled. This storyteller/librarian knows well just what it takes to mesmerize kids, and she made her selections accordingly.
Not only are the selections great, but there are also terrific hints, guidelines and general instruction to help us along the road of good book selection for kids. Before reading the review Olivia by Ian Falconer, we're asked to "Notice that the best books often have larger-than-life characters. Seek out books in which the main character is someone readers get to know and love....Have your children draw portraits of the characters they are reading about, list their interesting traits and quirks, decide what they would order in a restaurant, and what their favorite clothes and games and even books would be."
We all need this book. $70 plus s/h and well worth it. It lasts a long, long time and is invaluable.
Libraries Unlimited
www.lu.com
Crafting Comparison Papers
Today's world requires comparison – of so very many things – and it's not a skill or strategy we hone often enough with children. Crafting Comparison Papers (paperbound, 128 pages) is the answer for help in this area.
The opportunity to incorporate the writing of comparison papers arises frequently across the curriculum. For example, have students compare rap and poetry; compare the coastal regions of the southeast and the northeast; compare Monet's and Van Gogh's brush techniques. Don't forget the number of opportunities for comparison in reading: settings, plots and sub-plots, characters, themes.
The author, Marcia Freeman, makes the point that, as is the case in all aspects of teaching the craft of writing, teaching the craft of comparison must be explicit. She shows us how to do just that in five chapters.
Although Ms. Freeman covers grades four to 12 in this book, we looked at the material through the grades four-through-eight lens. The four steps of the instructional sequence for teaching the crafting of comparison papers are covered in depth:
- Identifying and describing physical and abstract attributes by writing a descriptive paragraph,
- Using a graphic organizer to compare by multiple attributes,
- Writing a comparison paragraph using cue words and
- Organizing and writing a multi-paragraph comparison paper. It's hard to make a misstep using the approach presented step-by-step.
We like this book a lot. It's available in October and is $19.95 plus s/h.
Maupin House
www.maupinhouse.com
Lucy Calkins
For Lucy Calkins fans, there's a new must-have from Heinemann's firsthand imprint: Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3–5. We think this one can make a big difference in your classroom. The work was written by Lucy and her colleagues in The Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.
An extension of Units of Study for Primary Writing, there are six units of study in the kit:
- Launching Writing Workshop,
- Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing,
- Breathing Life into Essays,
- Writing Fiction: Big Dreams, Tall Ambitions,
- Literary Essays: Writing About Reading and
- Memoir: The Art of Writing Well.
Within each of these units there is a volume of critical information totally accessible to the new teacher as well as to the more experienced teacher.
Each of the units is structured with the same format: there's an introduction, mini-lessons (mini-lessons are divided into four components: connection, teaching, active engagement and link), writing and conferring, mid-workshop teaching point, share, and lastly, mechanics, assessment and collaborating with colleagues. There is a side-column on every unit that contains Lucy Calkins' coaching commentary. You're never alone. There's an assessment rubric and a great CD-ROM that lets you eavesdrop on the one-to-one conferences of Lucy and her co-authors in their classrooms. The Teacher's Guide, six units of study and a CD-ROM are $159 plus s/h.
This program for teaching writing is as comprehensive as you'll find. Even the teaching language is modeled. More than all the wonderful instruction and tips, however, is the premise for the last book in the series, "Memoir: The Art of Writing Well." The premise for this unit is that we can "...teach children that they can compose not only pieces of writing but also lives in which writing matters." What a gift for every student.
Heinemann firsthand
www.unitsofstudy.com
A Book On Space
This is probably one of the most child-friendly, comprehensive books we've seen about exploration of the moon and the planets. Space – Exploring the Moon, the Planets, and Beyond is a beautiful 76-page tour of what's really beyond earth's borders.
Each spread deals with a different topic or planet. The book has been translated from French. The photographs are outstanding and will occupy readers for a long, long time.
$18.95 at your local bookstore.
Abrams Books for Young Readers
www.hnabooks.com
Around the World
The ultimate board game provides a strong base for multicultural units. this is an exciting game for up to four individual players or four teams. The object of the game is to travel around the world by answering questions correctly and gaining tokens to fill one's global scorecard.
There are six decks of cards covering World Bank, World Wonders, People and Places, Geography, Language and Culture and Customs. Lots of knowledge is conveyed through the questions.
We all know it's hard to cram in as much multicultural learning into the classroom day as we'd like, but this game format makes it easy. The cards might ask "In what country do women wear saris?" Or "What is a fiesta?" There's really good language practice included. $26.99 plus s/h.
This is one product you can recommend to parents, too, to extend learning at home in a fun way.
Around the World
www.aroundtheworldgames.com
The Happy Prince
Oscar Wilde's ever-new fairy tale was actually first published in 1888. We now have a retelling by Elissa Grodin, published by Sleeping Bear Press. The artwork by Laura Stutzman is just beautiful.
This is a great read-aloud and provides terrific character education discussion opportunities, so needed by today's kids. The ideas of homelessness and needs are treated with great dignity.
Sleeping Bear Press is donating $1 from the sale of each book to HELP USA, a national, nonprofit organization that offers comprehensive services for the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless. $17.95 at your local bookstore.
It's wonderful that we can enjoy a great teaching aid and contribute to a good cause at the same time.
Sleeping Bear Press
www.sleepingbearpress.com
Garden Genetics:
Teaching With Edible Plants published by NSTA Press (National Science Teachers Association) is a neat book for middle school science teachers. Using cucumbers, corn and tomatoes, you can explore traits, genes, crosses, mutation, genetic uniformity, genetic engineering and lots of other topics. Talk about real world!
Using a series of activities and inquiry-based experiments, students can make connections to ecology, evolution, plant biology and social science. Both guided worksheets and open-ended inquiry are used for the activities. Fascinating experiments are suggested and we can't imagine a class not learning and loving this approach. $12.97 for NSTA members for the Teacher's Edition, and $15.95 for non-members. $7.15 for student books for NSTA members and $8.95 for non-members.
NSTA Press
www.nsta.org/presshome
Rocket Phonics®
From The Critical Thinking Co. comes Rocket Phonics, a new phonics program using the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA) in which each letter or two-letter combination has a unique sound. Sound blending is added to this.
The program is aimed at children from ages four through nine; those just learning the sounds of letters and those who are having difficulty learning to read. The program is directed to parents as well as to teachers.
The pages of the book are in full color and phonetic and non-phonetic words are treated separately. The book progresses to reading stories with helpers (sound clues under troublesome letters in words) and then provides stories without helpers for the child. An appendix and teaching tips are included.
Accompanying the 420-page book are six Bingo-type game boards and disc, two sets of 36-sound Rocket Phonics ITA cards, a Peeker (this is a rocket-shaped card with a rectangular opening which helps the child find one word at a time).
Just $99.99 plus s/h for this complete kit that can be used over and over.
The Critical Thinking Co.
www.CriticalThinking.com
Units of Instruction for Gifted Learners
Prufrock Press specializes in publishing materials for gifted and advanced learners, and their materials are spectacular.
We saw Units of Instruction for Gifted Learners. For grades two through eight, the book contains five in-depth units of instruction in Social Studies, Science and Math. All of the units are interdisciplinary in approach.
There's a wonderful unit that uses reading and literature activities to teach students about how slaves lived and found freedom. The activities rely on books, print and the web, so each child can be comfortable working through the research.
Each unit follows the same format of Approximate length of time, Prerequisite Knowledge, Rationale, National Standards Addressed, Objectives, Procedure, Assessment and Independent Activities/Lesson Extension/Adaptations. There are reproducible pages for each unit.
Other units are "Media Blitz," "Magnificent Mascots!," "Sir Face: A Look at the Surface of Shapes" and "The Geometry Box Project." These are such rich units, and such fun stuff that we'd be adapting it for use with all our kids. Just $29.95, 168 pages, paperbound. This company has a lot of other great material, so be sure to visit their website.
Prufrock Press, Inc.
www.prufrock.com
